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Pirates general manager Neal Huntington was busy Tuesday, making two trades.

In the first, the Bucs sent outfielder Eric Hinske to the evil Yankees for a pair of minor leaguers, pitcher Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer.

Hinske didn't have a role or a future for the Bucs. In fact, Hinske goes from the lower class to the elite. He should be happy.

The Bucs should be happy that they get some help for their farm system. Erickson was 3-3 with a 2.25 ERA at Class A. Fryer hit .250 in Class A Tampa. The Bucs will be lucky if either contributes in the bigs, let alone has an impact.

The bigger trade happened hours later when Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett went to a team that appears worse off right now than the Pirates, and that's the Washington Nationals. In return, the Bucs got toolsy but troubled outfield prospect Lastings Milledge and former closer Joel Hanrahan, who actually lost the job twice this season.

This trade works for the Bucs because it's the classic sell-high, buy…

For several seasons now, and probably beyond that, the Pittsburgh Pirates have made a bad habit of making poor pitchers look like Cy Young Award candidates.

The latest example was Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians.

The Tribe sent David Huff to the mound and won the first game of a three-game series.

Huff entered the game with a 2-2 record and a 7.09 record. All he did was shut down the Pirates for eight innings, giving up just four hits.

Here's a look at some other pitchers and what they did to the Bucs this season:

Bronson Arroyo pitched eight shutout innings on May 1. That lowered his ERA to 4.91. His ERA today is 5.16.Brian Moehler pitched a complete game against the Pirates on May 29. He gave up one run. His ERA after that game was 6.43.On May 31, Mike Hampton dominated the Bucs, giving up one run in seven innings. He had a 5.07 ERA after that gem.Glen Perkins picked his second win of the season June 16. He had a 5.04 ERA after giving up two runs in six innings.There are …

I want to believe Pirates general manager Neal Huntington when he says Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez was the highest player on their draft board Tuesday.

I'll toss aside his other comments about putting money into signing other draft picks, although I would think you would want to put as much money into getting a high-impact player as possible.

Let's take Huntington at his word, shall we? Let's believe the Pirates honestly had Sanchez as the No. 3 player in the draft.

The Bucs got their guy, and that makes me scared.

More talent evaluators, and I think it would be easy to say most evaluators, didn't think that highly of Sanchez. They had Sanchez pegged for the bottom of the first round of the draft. Instead, the Bucs took him at No. 4.

If that's not a big, red flag, then I don't know what is.

If the Pirates are off on evaluating talent for the draft, then maybe they're off on the players already in the minors and big leagues. Maybe they're off on the pl…

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the baseball draft are almost an annual joke.

Starting with the failed picks of the 1990s through Tuesday, the Pirates made money the deciding factor over athletic ability for many of their picks.

There have been a couple exceptions, Andrew McCutchen being one, and Pedro Alvarez last year being the other.

But more often than not, the Bucs went with budget, and it cost them.

There are two ways to build a franchise these days: buying players or drafting players.

Obviously, the Pirates aren't in position to buy players like the Yankees or Red Sox. The only recourse they have is to draft good ones, like the Tampa Bay Rays have done.

Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez doesn't qualify as a fourth overall pick, however. ESPN and Baseball America had Alvarez rated as end-of-the-first-round talent. As an aside, you can see how Keith Law of ESPN.com rates the Bucs.

My cousin got married last week and I finally was able to grab a minute to talk to him at the reception.

Of course, the topic quickly moved to sports, and he couldn't help but bring up the Pirates.

"You know, I was at a game earlier this year, we were in the box and no one cared what was going on during the game," he said.

That's understandable and pretty reasonable, I guess, considering how the team has played for 16 years.

His next question really stumped me. "When are they going to win again?" he asked.

I didn't have an answer.

To him, and what seems like many Pirates fans, the baseball season has become a distraction between the end of the Penguins' season and the start of Steelers training camp.

After hearing the news Wednesday night about the Pirates' trade of Nate McLouth to the Atlanta Braves for three minor league players, I'd be able to tell him that it's at least a couple years longer than it was last week.

About Me

I'm a journalist with 20 years experience at three different newspapers. If I were an athlete, that would be past my prime. Luckily, I've not yet hit my best years. I've covered sports, cops, health, education and more. I've worked in the office and on the beat. And, I've got opinions.